It's Not the Quality, it's the Means
by colieshot
Summary: Casey's life takes a turn for the worse when Sam makes a nasty comment about her at dance. Derek gets involved and is caught between being Sam's best friend, Casey's stepsister, and then...maybe something more.


Chapter One

Disclaimer: I do not own Life With Derek [sadly.  
Author's Note: More coming to this chapter, be patient. I also hate this, so I might end up redoing the entire thing...I'm a perfectionist like that...because my writing today has fucking sucked. Sorry!

Dance. It was Casey's love, her release from the stress built up by her every-busy life; Derek, school, homework, Derek, friends, boys, Derek… Derek. Since her mom Nora had married George, Derek had been an unwanted annoyance. Edwin and Lizzie were happy; they had each other as a refuge when the Venturi-MacDonald household was in chaos. It normally was. Marti was little, and didn't care much either way that she was now living with Casey, Lizzie, and Nora. But Derek and Casey could never get along. Insults were thrown every minute of every hour when both were stuck in the house at the same time. Yet, it became a routine, the normalcy of the household. A quiet day was a strange day, an uncomfortable day. Today had been one of those days. Derek was visiting a camp girlfriend in the States, Lizzie was doing her homework with Edwin, Marti was at a friend's house, and George and Nora were at work. Casey had the living room to herself, finally, so the music was on and she had her long hair down, dressed in spandex, shorts, and a sports bra; her dance-practice outfit. She was completely at ease without Derek around. Casey hated more than anything that his presence always resulted in her tension and stress, but she had no control over it. Something about him just made her…

"Argh!" Casey let her frustration out through her voice. Why couldn't he just get out of her _fucking_ head? Even when she danced, he was there, taunting her, messing her up, even _today_… and he was coming back that evening too. Sometime. "Soon?" Casey said, horrified, as she looked at the clock. And of course, the door opened, and in swaggered Derek. His brown hair was windblown yet perfectly placed, and his trademark smirk was plastered on his face. He quickly looked over Casey, multiple thoughts running through his mind; _she's only in a sports bra…Shut the fuck UP Derek, it's Casey, not some no-namer that you're going to fuck then forget about the next day. It's neatfreak, straight-edge, grade-grubber Casey, my stepsister._

"You're home." Casey scowled blatantly. Routine, routine. It was a given now that she wouldn't smile when he was in the room, it was nearly physically impossible for her now.

"Surprise!" Derek laughed, managing, as usual, to sound like an asshole. But he walked up close to her, too close, and leaned into her. "Did you miss me?" he whispered into her ear before turning directly around and heading up the stairs. Casey didn't answer. He smelled too good… No. She couldn't think like that, _ever_, around Derek. Too bad it happened all too often.

"Edwin, get me a glass of water, easy on the ice," Casey heard Derek call to his younger brother upstairs. She rolled her eyes, turned the music up, and restarted her routine as Edwin angrily stumbled down the stairs to the kitchen. A second pair of feet hit the stairs seconds after. Derek plopped himself on the couch and turned the TV on, loud, so there was no way Casey could concentrate.

"DER-EK!" She shouted over the volume. "Turn the TV off NOW."

"Why should I? You've had all day, princess, and if you hadn't noticed, I was out," Derek shrugged. Always so blasé. Casey was fuming. She marched over, snatched the remote out of Derek's hand, and threw it at the wall with such a force that it snapped in half.

"Good job, Casey! And the award for the biggest snot-headed spaz would be…!" Derek yelled in her face.

"Shut the_ fuck _up, Derek," Casey hissed. "I don't care about the stupid clicker, I care about my dance, and it would be nice if you could just, I don't know, drop _dead_ so you could get out of my face and my mind so I could just LIVE."

Derek frowned at his step sister. She got mad, sure, but not like this. What, was she PMSing? Right, right, some sort of show for her dance. Was it important in some significant way? Wait, wait. She said to 'get out of her face _and_ mind.' That was interesting. _Why would I be in her mind?_ Derek wondered. _I know she's in my mind enough. Too much. I can't leave the house, never completely, she always shows up in my head at the worst times…like today, when I was nearly in Nicole's pants…_

"Hellooo, space-jerk, care to wake up and get out of here?" Casey yelled in Derek's face, forcing him from his ever-lasting Casey thoughts. She was so close to him right now; when she wore her dance clothes, Derek was always distracted. Her hips in those short-shorts, her flat stomach, everything drew him to her in ways he didn't even want to think about. It was _Casey_ for God's sake. And they'd been living together for a while now; both were seniors, and from an outside view, both wanted to be out of each others' lives for good. Internally, however…

Casey let out another exasperated yell and turned to pound her way up the stairs.

Derek sat silently for a minute, before getting up quickly and manually turning off the TV, and racing upstairs after Casey. He didn't understand it, but today he'd just pushed her over the edge, and for some reason, he couldn't deal with that. He didn't knock when he entered Casey's room, and from her bed she gave him the deadliest glare she'd ever given. For a moment, he was speechless.

"Um, what?" Casey said, raising her eyebrows.

"I um…" Derek started, looking at the floor. _Just ask the question. Don't be, what, nervous? NO. Get a grip, Venturi. It's Casey. You're just seeing if she's…ok._ Derek shut the door behind him and in one stride he sat on the edge of her bed, looking right into her eyes. "What's wrong." It was more of statement, to him. Obviously something was wrong.

"None of your business, Derek," Casey sighed, looking at the ceiling. If he could just leave so that she wouldn't have to resist all temptations that were running through her head, temptations that she wouldn't even acknowledge until her subconscious mind took over.

"No, I think it is my business, Case. I know something's wrong. You get pissed at me, what, twenty-four seven? Or you just never stop being pissed? But first of all, you never swear, and second, I can see it in your eyes. Something's _really_ wrong."

Casey knew she looked shocked, but she didn't care. Since when did Derek even pay that much attention to her? Did he want to piss her off more by tricking her into thinking he cared, then rubbing it in face later on? But she couldn't help it. Those words caught her restraint and threw it away so her guard was completely down. She sighed again, and looked right back into Derek's eyes. "You want to know what's wrong? Fine…" she paused for a moment, then laughed harshly. "Seems like you always miss the action, huh? Always out with some girl?" Casey contemplated this for a minute until Derek cleared his through, urging her to go on. "OK, Derek. I have the biggest dance production coming up next week. I have been working on this routine that _I made up_ since the beginning of the school year. Everyone is going to be at this dance production. Scouts from dance companies, colleges with dance teams – you know I care about this kind of stuff, Derek. And then, yesterday at dance, Sam comes to pick me up without calling first, or anything. And we've been broken up, you know? And we've been cool and everything. But he start's acting like a pompous asshole, showing off some dumb dance moves, walking around like he's – like he's _you_, actually. And do you know what he says? He says, "Hey, Casey, bet you want a ride with me so a real man can show you how it's done – in bed!" Casey whispered this. It had hurt, yeah, and she'd smelled whiskey in his breath, and she couldn't stop wondering _why_. It just wasn't _Sam_. She did know him well, they'd dated for over two months. She sighed, and continued. "And then all of the other guys at dance just looked at each other like, 'Ok, so it's easy to get her in bed?' even though I suppose they didn't really know what to think. But it made everything at dance awful and so I've been practicing at home and…" Casey closed her eyes and fell onto the pillow she was holding, tears streaming out silently. She felt Derek shift, felt his hand rubbing her back, his voice in her ear saying, "Shh, shh, it'll be ok…"


End file.
